The civilian casualty hypocrites

They believe Jewish blood is not just cheap, but worthless.

Israel’s “critics” and many others who ought to know better are getting more and more agitated over the issue of civilian casualties in the Israel-Hamas war, although most of them were plenty agitated from the beginning. This is almost certainly one of the reasons Israel is dragging its feet on finally going into Rafah.

In my view, on the part of some individuals, this concern over civilian casualties is an understandable reaction to the horrors of war. On the part of the various groups and organizations harping on it relentlessly, however, it’s obvious hypocrisy. 

First, as many have pointed out, if you denounce the civilian casualties without also demanding that Hamas immediately and unconditionally surrender, you’re being at best disingenuous and at worst consciously malicious. Hamas’s survival means more war and thus more civilian casualties. As such, a Hamas surrender is the only thing people who are sincerely concerned about civilian casualties should be advocating.

Second, the denunciations began days after Oct. 7, if that. That is, before any major military operations got underway. In other words, this is obviously a political tactic intended to rescue Hamas, not a genuine concern. Moreover, on the part of Israel’s campus and media “critics,” it’s nothing but pure emotional and moral blackmail in the style of abusive spouses and cult leaders.

Finally, there is a much darker force at work. It’s quite clear that those denouncing Israel over civilian casualties will never be satisfied with any rate of civilian casualties except zero. It’s also more or less self-evident that if there were no civilian casualties—which is impossible—they’d find some other propaganda weapon to use. Their hatred of Israel is not one of degree. It’s absolute.

What this means is obvious but almost never mentioned: The “critics” want Israel to do nothing. That is, when Israeli civilians are slaughtered and Israel is threatened with genocidal terrorism, they want Israel to take no action whatsoever.

There’s an expression in Israel: “Jewish blood is not cheap.” What these people are saying is that Jewish blood isn’t just cheap, it’s worthless.

The short answer to that is obvious. The somewhat longer answer is that such a claim is self-evidently racist and part of a long tradition of dehumanization that goes back to pre-Christian times. That is, it’s not just appalling but literally demonic. There is no way on earth that Israel or Jews in general can or should tolerate it.

One could also say that such an argument demands from Israel what the “critics” would never demand of themselves. But I think this isn’t the case. The people who make the argument are perfectly willing to do absolutely nothing when they and their loved ones are attacked. 

This has been proven repeatedly by their reactions to Islamic terrorism in Europe, the US, and elsewhere. In every case, they have bent the knee, sympathized with the monsters, and begged to be forgiven for whatever they might have done to “provoke” the violence. 

They have no will to fight or defend themselves and expect the Jews to have none either. They believe this makes them something akin to saints.

In other words, they’re members of an informal and undeclared suicide cult. Forgive us if we choose not to join it.

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I must apologize for being relatively silent over the past week. Once again, I was overstretched thanks to the fact that the world’s gone insane and I have to edit people’s opinions about it. I’ve also had to work on some other lengthy writing projects.

One of them was a long essay just published at Quillette, which is a terrific publication you all ought to be reading. It’s an exploration of the British transgressive writer JG Ballard’s most transgressive novel Crash, which some of you may know due to David Cronenberg’s very controversial 1996 film adaptation of it.

You can read the essay here.

I also published my weekly column, which deals with the recent turbulence in the US-Israel alliance—which I believe is entirely due to rather craven US domestic political considerations—and the belief of some on the pro-Israel right that Israel ought to “go it alone” in response. In my view, while born of understandable anger at the current administration, this is pure fantasy. 

I further explore the issue in the context of a possible American retreat from the world stage and conclude that—if it happens—Israel should not abandon the alliance but seek to manage its role in the retreat to Israel’s advantage. In the end, we’re stuck with our friends; which is not necessarily a bad thing. At least they’re not our enemies.

Read it all here.

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One of the more heartening things about the last few terrible months has been the emergence of progressive politicians Senator John Fetterman and Representative Ritchie Torres as strong defenders of Israel and the Jewish people. 

Of course, it’s always heartening to see people willing to stand up to the antisemitic mob out of pure moral conviction. But Fetterman and Torres also show that a better progressivism is at least possible and there are those within the progressive movement willing to fight for it. In other words, progressivism has not been completely conquered by a suicidal cult of racist terrorism.

In some ways, I think it is the decent progressives who are going to have the hardest fight over the next several years. American Jews face an ordeal of the most grievous kind, but the Jews have a long and honorable history of surviving such ordeals. Decent progressives, however, are facing the possible self-annihilation of a movement to which they have dedicated much of their lives, and there is no indication one way or the other whether they will be able to save it. This can’t be a pleasant position to be in.

Perhaps most importantly, though, Fetterman and Torres underline the fact that the whole world is not against us, we do have friends and allies, and we should embrace them with everything we’ve got.